The folks at the media watchdog group, Media Matters, jumped right on the case yesterday when Fox News cited a Spanish "study". The problems with the Spanish report start with the author: Professor Gabriel Calzada.

"And just where did that study come from? Professor Gabriel Calzada is the founder and president of the Fundacion Juan de Mariana, a libertarian think tank founded in 2005. He's also a fellow of the Center for New Europe, a Brussels-based libertarian think tank that in recent years apparently accepted funding from Exxon Mobil."

"... the study doesn't actually identify those jobs allegedly destroyed by renewable-energy spending. What the study actually says is that government spending on renewable energy is less than half as efficient at job creation as private-sector spending. Specifically, each green job required on average 571,000 euros, compared with 259,000 euros in "average capital per worker" in the rest of the economy."

"So how does that translate into outright job destruction? It's simply a question of opportunity cost, the paper says: 'The money spent by the government cannot, once committed to 'green jobs,' be consumed or invested by private parties and therefore the jobs that would depend on such consumption and investment will disappear or not be created.'

"On paper, that makes sense. But Spain's support for renewable energy came out of existing tax revenues-there were no special levies on corporate activity designed to underwrite clean energy.

"The money the government has spent on clean energy may have edged out other government spending, but it's hard to see how it could have edged out private-sector spending, especially when the Socialist government there has reduced corporate income-tax rates, most recently this past January." (emphasis added).